STRATCOM

United States Strategic Command
The official seal of the United States Strategic Command.
Active	1 June 1992 to present
Country	United States of America
Type	Functional Combatant Command
Role	Strategic deterrence, global strike, strategic warning, integrated missile defense, global C4ISR
Part of	Department of Defense
Headquarters	Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, U.S.
Nickname(s)	STRATCOM, USSTRATCOM
Motto(s)	Peace is our Profession
Commanders
Current commander	General John E. Hyten, USAF

United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), is one of nine unified commands in the Department of Defense. Headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, USSTRATCOM is responsible for strategic deterrence, global strike, and operating the Defense Department's Global Information Grid. It also provides a host of capabilities to support the other combatant commands, including strategic warning; integrated missile defense; and global command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR).This dynamic command gives national leadership a unified resource for greater understanding of specific threats around the world and the means to respond to those threats rapidly.

USSTRATCOM employs tailored nuclear, cyber, space, global strike, joint electronic warfare, missile defense, and intelligence capabilities to deter aggression, decisively respond if deterrence fails, assure allies, shape adversary behavior, defeat terror, and define the force of the future.

U.S. Strategic Command's day-to-day planning and execution for the primary mission areas is done by a sub-unified command (USCYBERCOM) and the following USSTRATCOM components:

The Global Operations Center, or GOC, is the nerve center for USSTRATCOM. The GOC is responsible for the global situational awareness of the Commander, USSTRATCOM, and is the mechanism by which he exercises operational command and control of the Nation's global strategic forces.

U.S. Strategic Command's Airborne Command Post (ABNCP), also called "Looking Glass", allows USSTRATCOM the ability to command, control, and communicate with its nuclear forces should ground-based command centers become inoperable.

U.S. Strategic Command is one of nine unified commands under the Department of Defense (DoD). Headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, USSTRATCOM is responsible for strategic deterrence, global strike, and operating the Defense Department's Global Information Grid. It also provides a host of capabilities to support the other combatant commands, including strategic warning; integrated missile defense; and global command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR).

Established Oct. 1, 2002, USSTRATCOM has made many contributions to the national defense. For example, it has provided intelligence, planning and cyber support to coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. It monitors orbiting satellites and space debris, allowing high-value spacecraft like the International Space Station to maneuver and avoid collision. It has fielded systems to provide limited protection against ballistic missile attack. In February 2008, it destroyed a satellite that was about to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. In 2011, it supported U.S. Africa Command's operations against Libya in a variety of ways, including long-range conventional strikes and ISR. Today's USSTRATCOM is the product of an evolution from a nuclear command to a strategic one in the broadest sense-from an organization prepared to employ thermonuclear weapons in a general war (which it existed to prevent) to a command that creates a variety of global strategic effects day to day in support of national objectives. Its rich history draws on important contributions from many different organizations stretching back to World War II.